Temporary ligation of a tubular lumen is often required during surgical procedures. For instance, ligation of a bowel lumen, a blood vessel or other bodily lumens, vessels or tubes during surgery may be required. Temporary ligation of lumens is achieved by a number of methods currently. For instance, in gastrointestinal surgery for the resection of colorectal cancer and for the manipulation and retraction of bowel lumen during laparoscopic lower pelvic dissection, surgeons currently use nylon tape or sutures to isolate the lumen. The tape or suture method requires considerable skill and is time consuming.
A further problem with existing ligation tools and methods is that often an additional assistant is required. For instance, an additional assistant may be required during gastrointestinal surgery on females to manipulate the uterus interiorly so as to improve the access and visual operative fields in which the surgeon has to operate in achieving ligation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a surgical clamp that can be deployed in keyhole surgery that ameliorates at least some of the aforementioned problems or at least offer a useful choice.